Wanting Whoopie Pies

Note: To learn more about the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Program, visit www.AmIHungry.com or my website.

I blame it on the Food Network. Well, that and the fact that, as Dr. May likes to remind us in the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating program, people are “food suggestible.” In other words, simply seeing a certain food may make us want it.

I’m not as suggestible as I used to be, but sometimes I’ll still see something and think, “That looks really good. I’d like to have some.”

In this case, previews for tonight’s episode of the Holiday Baking Championship showed that the contestants would be making whoopie pies. Plus, a couple of weeks ago I listened to my twelve-year-old nephew enthuse about a whoopie pie he got, and I’ve generally been having the itch to start baking for the holidays. With all that, I couldn’t resist: I wanted to make – and eat – whoopie pies.

Of course this required more effort than simply purchasing one. I had to buy marshmallow fluff (happily I had all the other ingredients), make and chill the dough, bake the cakes, cool them, make the filling, put them together, and clean up from all of the above. So why do all this?

Partly, I love the smell of baking chocolate filling the house, and the almost magical quality of these disparate ingredients coming together to make something so tasty.

Additionally, this is a good test of how much I really want something. If I keep thinking about it, enough to go to the trouble of making it from scratch, then it’s something I really, really want.

I also have to say that, having gone through all of that, when I finally had my whoopie pie, it was so much more satisfying than if I’d bought it. And as an added bonus, it gets me underway in my own holiday baking, since I’ve put some in the freezer to save for gifts. I might not win any competitions, but I have fun with it, and that’s the most important part.